World News - The War on Sedition “Anglosphere” allies crack down on speech in the name of fighting terror.

If Australian Prime Minister John Howard gets his way, citizens down under will soon face seven years in prison if they are convicted of “sedition.” That’s not entirely new—sedition laws have been on the country’s books for at least 40 years—but the proposed legislation more than doubles the penalty. It also expands the definition of criminal speech to include “assist[ing], by any means whatever, an organisation or country…at war with the Commonwealth, whether or not the existence of a state of war has been declared.”What comprises such “assistance,” and how on earth do you know when an organization is at “war with the Commonwealth” in the absence of a declaration to that effect? The answers are not clear, even after one very heated month of public debate and outcry.... http://www.reason.com

French police who spent two years trying to identify a woman who was murdered by a blow to the head were relieved to discover the reason their efforts were failing: the woman died half a millennium ago.The skeleton of a woman in her 30s was found during an exceptionally low tide in December 2003 near the seaside Brittany town of Plouezoc'h. A long gash in the skull convinced investigators she was killed with a hatchet or other sharp implement.Police ploughed through missing persons' files to no avail. A theory that the woman was the wife of a Normandy doctor who disappeared with his family in a famous 1999 case was dismissed after DNA tests....http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2006-01-25-francemurder_x.htm?csp=34

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday disputed a Pentagon-commissioned study that warns the Army needs more troops for Iraq and Afghanistan, telling reporters the service is nowhere close to its breaking point.The study by Andrew Krepinevich, a military analyst and former Army officer, found that the Army's manpower needs for those conflicts "clearly exceed those available for the mission.""The forces called for proved insufficient to execute effectively stability operations of the type envisioned by the U.S. military," the study said. "A clear sign of this was the willingness of the U.S. command in Iraq to cede responsibilities for stability operations in several key cities to forces hostile to the interim government."Rumsfeld said he has not read the study but took issue with its conclusions....http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/25/military.studies/index.html?section=cnn_world

The Pentagon has directed the Navy to assume a ``greater presence'' in the western Pacific by adding at least one aircraft carrier and five nuclear submarines over the next decade, according to a draft of the Pentagon's review of strategy and forces. The increase will put half the Navy's aircraft carriers and 60 percent of its submarine fleet in the Pacific and is largely driven by the Pentagon's concern over China's increased military might, according to a congressional defense analyst. ``They recognize they may be challenged from a modernized Chinese maritime military force,'' said Ronald O'Rourke, the chief naval analyst for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, who's written extensively on the subject. ``It's intended to send a signal of their concern.'' ...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=amz4s6xSvaP0&refer=home

The men dressed in military garb who crossed the border and confronted Texas law officers this week were drug smugglers, not Mexican soldiers, officials said Wednesday, illustrating Mexico's thorny problem with criminals who masquerade as security forces. Photos of what appeared to be Mexican troops in U.S. territory during the incident Monday shocked many Americans, although Mexico quickly denied its military was involved. But to most Mexicans it just offered further proof that drug traffickers run rampant around the border area in military-style vehicles, wearing uniforms and, in some cases, using military firepower....http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1541183&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Memory enhancement, IQ boosters and drugs designed to attack genetic weaknesses may increase competition in the future and create a playing field that is far from equal, scientists at the World Economic Forum said Wednesday. But alongside such ethically complex issues, other forms of human enhancement organ replacement, drug therapy and genetic mapping could make the difference between life and death as well. As science edges closer to allowing parents to choose the gender of their child and drugs are able to dull or enhance memories, some on the sidelines of the annual meeting at the Swiss Alpine ski resort of Davos questioned the economics of human enhancement and the ethics of progress....http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1542146